posted 07-05-2010 05:54 PM
First part for your own launch vehicle... here is an item on eBay that you have got to look at. A full size Pratt and Whitney RL10 Rocket Engine! All we here on cS need to figure out is how not to bid against each other.

The engine stands between 6-7 feet tall and is in good shape. According to Pratt and Whitney's own home page the engine is described as the world's highest performance rocket engine, and has been the upper-stage liquid oxygen and hydrogen fueled rocket engine of choice for more then 4 decades. "With NASA's most reliable upper stage engine, the RL-10 powered Centaur launched numerous satellites and space probes on a variety of exciting earth orbital and interplanetary missions. These missions included the Surveyor lunar lander, Vikings Mars lander, and a host of satellites for communications." The latest RL 10 model powers the second stage of the new Delta 3 satellite launch rockets.

This engine is awesome!!! Not a jet engine or a gas turbine. A full blown rocket with all of the gadgets attached. Sold as-is.

dfoxMember

Posts: 196From: Scarsdale, NY, United StatesRegistered: Mar 2010

posted 07-05-2010 09:21 PM
I think Scott has dibs on this.

MCroft04Member

Posts: 1350From: Smithfield, Me, USARegistered: Mar 2005

posted 07-05-2010 09:34 PM
I'll contribute $25 towards buying it for Scott. We can raise the money to put this engine where it belongs. By the way, my wife's father used to work for PW in West Palm Beach, Fl. I can still remember waking up at night with the windows shaking from the test of a PW engine.

SpaceAholicMember

Posts: 3339From: Sierra Vista, ArizonaRegistered: Nov 1999

posted 07-05-2010 09:52 PM
Certainly would love to acquire it but there are more motivated folks then I with the resources to do so. This thrust chamber has unfortunately seen better days - I know of RL10 examples absent the same condition issues available for private purchase if the "moolah" were not an impediment.